Which firmware for my HBA card?

[Elegant]

Hi, I'm new here and I'll be building my first FreeNAS system shortly. For my storage, I managed to acquire 2x LSI 9300-8i cards ($100 each) and have decided that I will be using those for now. I've read multiple threads regarding this card (alpha drivers, etc.) and am wondering which firmware I should be flashing to it for best performance. I've seen threads saying that SAS2 is more reliable but can I even flash a firmware to make it use 6GB/s instead of 12GB/s which seems to cause issues?

Also, I've seen many people say you should be using firmware X since FreeNAS is using the corresponding driver X. Where can I find out that information without starting FreeNAS and having it warn me? So far, I've only see it mentioned in the forums and I couldn't see it in any release notes.

Any help would be much appreciated =)

 

[sfcredfox]

if you're using 9.3 and earlier, use P16.

for 9.3.1, use P20. i guess this is in the release notes for the update.

 

[Elegant]

You can flash the 9211-8i drivers on a 9300-8i safely?

 

[sfcredfox]

Um, I don't know about that. I would think not.

Just use the firmware for the card you have. If there's no P20 firmware, card might not support it. Stick to P16, and don't upgrade to 9.3.1, stay at 9.3

 

[Darren Myers]

those are SAS3 cards....mhmmmm, i've seen alot of SAS3 threads turn up lately....last i saw all SAS3 stuff has alpha drivers and are iffy, https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/strange-hdd-behaviour.36466/#post-222804 not sure if that will help you.

 

[Elegant]

That does help a bit, I have a better understanding of what the issue is at least. It also shows that drivers do exist and I might need to try to port them somehow for FreeNAS 9.3.

 

[Darren Myers]

That does help a bit, I have a better understanding of what the issue is at least. It also shows that drivers do exist and I might need to try to port them somehow for FreeNAS 9.3.

i would see if @cyberjock or @SweetAndLow can weigh in....idk how doing some tom foolery with FreeNAS will go to add drivers/support.

 

[HoneyBadger]

That does help a bit, I have a better understanding of what the issue is at least. It also shows that drivers do exist and I might need to try to port them somehow for FreeNAS 9.3.

9.3.1 has the P9 version of the mpr(4) driver but that one only calls out the 3004, 3008, and 3108 as officially supported; the 9300 isn't listed. You might be on your own for this one.

 

[Elegant]

9.3.1 has the P9 version of the mpr(4) driver but that one only calls out the 3004, 3008, and 3108 as officially supported; the 9300 isn't listed. You might be on your own for this one.

Even better! The LSI 9300-8i's I/O controller is LSI SAS3008. Seems like the solution will be to use the stable version of FreeNAS 9.3.1. I'm assuming this is safe for production until the official release.

EDIT: Apparently 9.3.1 stable is the official release indicated here and I just read the "What's New" section that confirms this. Hopefully this is more than just "alpha" drivers as they previously were when I was gathering my information from older forum posts.

 

[Ericloewe]

9.3.1 has the P9 version of the mpr(4) driver but that one only calls out the 3004, 3008, and 3108 as officially supported; the 9300 isn't listed. You might be on your own for this one.

LSI SAS 2xxx and 3xxx are SAS2/3 controllers. LSI SAS 92xx and 93xx are SAS2/3 cards. For instance, an LSI SAS 9211 uses an SAS 2008 chip.